Thursday, 6 September 2012

Treasure Box Party - Craft Kit review

We were recently offered the chance to take a look at the Treasure Box party kit from Interplay, and I thought it would be a lovely end-of-holiday activity for my girls and their friends.

Each kit contains enough take home gifts for 2-6 children, so it's perfect for small parties or get-togethers. It's aimed at girls aged 5-8, so we thought we'd have a go with two 7 year olds, two 5 year olds and a 3 year old, on a lovely sunny day!

The box contained 6 heart shaped boxes, 6 thin paintbrushes, 3 sets of paint (1 pink and 1 purple pot per set), 4 sheets of sticky 'jewels' (about 30 on each sheet), 6 bags of coloured beads (about 24 of each colour), 6 lengths of elastic, 6 sheets of pink tissue paper and 6 silver coloured charms. The girls were keen to paint their boxes straight away, but then we needed a short break for the paint to dry so that the jewels could be stuck on next. The break was a perfect chance to start making the charm bracelets. My top tip here would be to have the beads divided out ready for your party, so that one child doesn't get all yellow if they'd like some pink or not enough beads if others are working faster.

A bit of adult supervision and help was definitely needed for the bracelet making, particularly for the younger ones, as they had to thread small beads onto a very thin piece of elastic. The elastic provided was actually long enough to produce a decent looking necklace for the younger girls though, and it was nice to have that option. The charms were a good extra touch to make it seem more special.

If you like to be ultra fair like me, and want to avoid tears half way through the party, you may want to decide alone in advance who gets which charm, or let them dip their hands into a covered bag - at this age there is still often likely to be an argument over who gets which one (or is that just mine?!). Our selection included a heart, a starfish, the letters 'love', a music note and a couple of others - not necessarily the images shown on the box.The tissue paper was a nice finishing touch which made the girls feel like they had something special, and they were delighted with their creations! The whole activity lasted around an hour and was a very calm, girlie experience :-)

This kit retails at £19.99 direct from Interplay, and I'd definitely recommend this kit for anybody trying to hold a party at home on a budget, or even if you'd just like some ideas for playtime!

Disclosure: We were sent the above toy for the purpose of this review, but have
not received payment. All the views expressed here are our own.

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What is Autism?

'Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. People with autism have difficulties with everyday social interaction'.What is PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance)?

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is one of several Autistic Spectrum Conditions (also known as ASD, Autistic Spectrum Disorder). The central difficulty for people with PDA is their avoidance of the everyday demands made by other people, due to their high anxiety levels when they feel that they are not in control.

Children may sometimes be described as having 'challenging' or 'oppositional' behaviour. Parents describe life as 'walking on eggshells' and their child as 'Jekyll and Hyde'.